MBI: The unsung hero of dense breast imaging?

December 18, 2015

Breast density and its influence on a woman's breast cancer risk has become a hot topic for research and practice -- especially because more than 40% of screening-eligible women have dense tissue. Because density can limit conventional mammography's performance, clinicians have begun to use other modalities to screen for cancer, such as ultrasound and digital breast tomosynthesis.

But there's an unsung hero in breast cancer detection for women with dense tissue, according to research presented at the recent RSNA 2015 meeting: molecular breast imaging (MBI).

..."Molecular breast imaging shows functional uptake of Tc-99m sestamibi in metabolically active cells, which is what cancer cells are," Carrie Hruska, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic said. "When added to mammography, it finds an additional eight to nine cancers per 1,000 women screened -- and most of these are invasive."